Escondido mayor's gift reports under investigation

California’s political watchdog, the Fair Political Practices Commission, is investigating Escondido Mayor Lori Holt Pfeiler for allegedly failing to report the true sources of gifts she received on a trip with the Chargers in November to Denver.

The commission, however, stressed in a letter to the citizen who made the complaint that “we have not made any determination about the validity of the allegation … or about the culpability.”

Robroy Fawcett filed the complaint May 21. He is a frequent critic of the mayor. Pfeiler had reported in an economic interest disclosure statement that she was given a $375 seat in a box at the Denver Broncos-Chargers game and a $50 ride from the airport to the hotel by the Palomar Pomerado Health Foundation. After the game, she had dinner with Chargers owner Dean Spanos and his wife, and Spanos paid $95 for her meal.

Fawcett alleged that the ultimate source of all those gifts was the Chargers, and that Pfeiler should have reported them as such.

Pfeiler has disagreed with his characterization, saying that she was invited to go by the health foundation, not the Chargers, and that she attended the event as mayor and a former foundation board member because she wanted to promote the new $925 million Palomar Medical Center West on Citracado Parkway to Spanos.

Pfeiler has said the city reimbursed the foundation for the hotel and airfare.

Fawcett, however, alleged that if Pfeiler had reported all her gifts on the trip as coming from the Chargers, the value would have exceeded the commission’s regulation of $420 per source.

If Pfeiler violated rules, she could be fined up to $5,000 for each infraction, said Roman Porter, the commission’s executive director.